Co-occurrence of psychiatric disorders is well documented. Recent quantitative efforts have moved toward an understanding of this phenomenon, with the general psychopathology or p-factor model ...emerging as the most prominent characterization. Over the past decade, bifactor model analysis has become increasingly popular as a statistical approach to describe common/shared and unique elements in psychopathology. However, recent work has highlighted potential problems with common approaches to evaluating and interpreting bifactor models. Here, we argue that bifactor models, when properly applied and interpreted, can be useful for answering some important questions in psychology and psychiatry research. We review problems with evaluating bifactor models based on global model fit statistics. We then describe more valid approaches to evaluating bifactor models and highlight 3 types of research questions for which bifactor models are well suited to answer. We also discuss the utility and limits of bifactor applications in genetic and neurobiological research. We close by comparing advantages and disadvantages of bifactor models with other analytic approaches and note that no statistical model is a panacea to rectify limitations of the research design used to gather data.
Background and Aims
Behavioral economists assess alcohol consumption as a function of unit price. This method allows construction of demand curves and demand indices, which are thought to provide ...precise numerical estimates of risk for alcohol problems. One of the more commonly used behavioral economic measures is the Alcohol Purchase Task (APT). Although the APT has shown promise as a measure of risk for alcohol problems, the construct validity and incremental utility of the APT remain unclear. This paper presents a meta‐analysis of the APT literature.
Methods
Sixteen studies were included in the meta‐analysis. Studies were gathered via searches of the PsycInfo, PubMed, Web of Science and EconLit research databases. Random‐effects meta‐analyses with inverse variance weighting were used to calculate summary effect sizes for each demand index‐drinking outcome relationship. Moderation of these effects by drinking status (regular versus heavy drinkers) was examined. Additionally, tests of the incremental utility of the APT indices in predicting drinking problems above and beyond measuring alcohol consumption were performed.
Results
The APT indices were correlated in the expected directions with drinking outcomes, although many effects were small in size. These effects were typically not moderated by the drinking status of the samples. Additionally, the intensity metric demonstrated incremental utility in predicting alcohol use disorder symptoms beyond measuring drinking.
Conclusions
The Alcohol Purchase Task appears to have good construct validity, but limited incremental utility in estimating risk for alcohol problems.
Considerable attention has been directed towards studying co-occurring psychopathology through the lens of a general factor (
-factor). However, the developmental trajectory and stability of the
...-factor have yet to be fully understood. The present study examined the explanatory power of dynamic mutualism theory - an alternative framework that suggests the
-factor is a product of lower-level symptom interactions that strengthen throughout development. Data were drawn from a population-based sample of girls (
= 2450) who reported on the severity of internalizing and externalizing problems each year from age 14 to age 21. Predictions of dynamic mutualism were tested using three distinct complementary statistical approaches including: longitudinal bifactor models, random-intercept cross-lagged panel models (RI-CLPMs), and network models. Across methods, study results document preliminary support for mutualistic processes in the development of co-occurring psychopathology (that is captured in
). Findings emphasize the importance of exploring alternative frameworks and methods for better understanding the
-factor and its development.
Studies using permanent lesions implicate the amygdala, a recipient of gustatory and viscerosensory information, in taste aversion learning. Reviewing this literature with respect to the location of ...the lesions and the quality of the behavioral methodology reveals little, if any, involvement of the medial amygdala or central nucleus in conditioned taste aversion. Although a disruption is found following damage to the basolateral region, the attenuated conditioned taste aversion appears to be a consequence of a lesion-induced impairment of neophobia rather than an association formation deficit. The key to understanding the functional significance of the basolateral amygdala in conditioned taste aversion reduces, we believe, to determining the role of this structure in gustatory neophobia.
With the advent of new data collection technologies, intensive longitudinal data (ILD) are collected more frequently than ever. Along with the increased prevalence of ILD, more methods are being ...developed to analyze these data. However, relatively few methods have yet been applied for making long- or even short-term predictions from ILD in behavioral settings. Applications of forecasting methods to behavioral ILD are still scant. We first establish a general framework for modeling ILD and then extend that frame to two previously existing forecasting methods: these methods are Kalman prediction and ensemble prediction. After implementing Kalman and ensemble forecasts in free and open-source software, we apply these methods to daily drug and alcohol use data. In doing so, we create a simple, but nonlinear dynamical system model of daily drug and alcohol use and illustrate important differences between the forecasting methods. We further compare the Kalman and ensemble forecasting methods to several simpler forecasts of daily drug and alcohol use. Ensemble forecasts may be more appropriate than Kalman forecasts for nonlinear dynamical systems models, but further forecasting evaluation methods must be put into practice.
Parental characteristics and practices predict borderline personality disorder (BPD) symptoms in children. However, it is difficult to disentangle whether these effects are genetically or ...environmentally mediated. The present study examines the contributions of genetic and environmental influences by comparing the effects of familial risk factors (i.e. parental psychopathology and borderline traits, maladaptive parenting, marital discord) on child BPD traits in genetically related (biological) and non-related (adoptive) families.
Data are from 409 adoptive and 208 biological families who participated in the Siblings Interaction and Behavior Study (SIBS) and 580 twin families the Minnesota Twin Family Study (MTFS). Parent characteristics and practices included parental psychopathology (measured via structured clinical interviews), parental BPD traits, parenting behaviors, and marital discord. A series of multi-level regression models were estimated to examine the relationship of familial risk factors to child BPD traits and to test whether children's adoptive status moderated the association.
Symptom counts of parents' conduct disorder, adult antisocial behavior, nicotine, alcohol, and illicit drug dependence, and paternal BPD traits substantially predicted child BPD traits only in biological offspring, implying genetic transmission. Maternal BPD traits and both maternal and paternal conflict, lack of regard, and lack of involvement predicted offspring BPD traits regardless of the adoptive status, implying environmental transmission.
Parental externalizing psychopathology and father's BPD traits contribute genetic risk for offspring BPD traits, but mothers' BPD traits and parents' poor parenting constitute environmental risks for the development of these offspring traits.
Abstract Background Psychological distress tolerance, the ability to persist in goal directed activity when experiencing psychological distress, is associated with poor substance use treatment ...outcomes including drug and alcohol treatment dropout and relapse. Objective The current study examines if a brief distress tolerance intervention that was specifically developed as an adjunctive treatment for patients in residential substance abuse treatment shows efficacy in improving the patients’ distress tolerance. Methods Seventy-six individuals who were receiving treatment at a residential substance use treatment facility and indexed low distress tolerance on laboratory distress tolerance measures were randomized into three conditions: treatment-as-usual (TAU), six sessions of Supportive Counseling (SC), or six sessions of the novel distress tolerance treatment, Skills for Improving Distress Intolerance (SIDI). Measures Patients were assessed at baseline for DSM-IV psychiatric diagnoses, DSM-IV substance use disorders, distress tolerance, and depressive symptoms. Patients were again assessed at posttreatment. Therapeutic alliance and treatment expectancies and credibility were also assessed at posttreatment. Results Patients who received SIDI ( n = 28) evidenced significantly greater improvements than SC ( n = 24) and TAU participants ( n = 24) on the distress tolerance laboratory measures, even when controlling for changes in negative affect (in the form of depression). Additionally, a higher percentage of patients in SIDI reached clinically significant improvement compared to patients in SC and TAU. Conclusion This study supports the efficacy of SIDI in improving distress tolerance levels among individuals with drug and alcohol use disorders currently receiving residential substance use treatment. SIDI appears to be a brief and feasible intervention for use within inpatient substance use facilities.
•The Alternative Model for Personality Disorders (AMPD) may leverage personality traits to predict addictions treatment outcomes.•We examined AMPD traits and their interaction with age and gender to ...prospectively predict residential addictions treatment dropout.•The measurement properties of AMPD were generally equivalent for males and females and across age.•Disinhibition and Negative Emotionality domains and facets predicted premature treatment termination, particularly among young men.•Disinhibition facets may be particularly useful to screen and triage for residential addictions treatment.
Among people receiving residential treatment for a substance use disorder (SUD), premature treatment termination predicts poor post-treatment outcomes. We examined the utility of the alternative model for personality disorders (AMPD) for predicting premature residential SUD treatment termination, including interactions with age and gender.
Participants (N = 374) were receiving residential treatment for SUD and enrolled in a clinical trial with two conditions: Skills for Improving Distress Intolerance (SIDI) and Supportive Counseling (NCT01741415). Participants were assessed at intake on AMPD traits using the Personality Inventory for DSM-5 (PID-5) and tracked longitudinally. After establishing gender and age measurement invariance, we used competing risk models to predict treatment completion versus premature termination using interactions of PID-5 scores with age and gender.
Disinhibition and Negative Emotionality domains and facets predicted premature treatment termination, particularly among younger, male participants. There were positive effects of SIDI on treatment completion for participants with high levels of domain and facet Negative Emotionality. A small proportion (≈ 12 %) of the PID-5 items showed differential item functioning by age or gender; however, the aggregate impact on test-level total scores was negligible.
Participants (particularly young men) displaying poor self-control and emotional regulation are at risk for premature termination. These findings, together with minimal aggregate differential item functioning at the scale level, suggest that the PID-5 is a practically useful, construct-valid, non-proprietary measure, aspects of which can be used for screening in residential SUD treatment. Furthermore, among those with high negative emotionality, SIDI may be effective in preventing premature treatment termination.
In contrast to latent variable models suggesting a common etiology, network theory proposes that symptoms of psychopathology co-occur because of direct, dynamic associations among them. We examined ...how symptoms associated with borderline personality disorder, depression, and anxiety mutually reinforce one another over time, forming a network. We further identified symptoms that drove the network by exerting the most influence on other symptoms. Participants were 37 undergraduate students aged 18 to 26. Following baseline assessment, participants were prompted to answer a Qualtrics-based survey of current symptoms of BPD, depression, and anxiety twice daily for 40 days. Multilevel time-series network analyses were conducted with (a) BPD symptoms alone and (b) BPD, depressive and anxiety symptoms. In the network of BPD symptoms, momentary interpersonal difficulties predicted later dissociation, which predicted later affective fluctuation at the within-person level. Dissociation exerted the strongest influence on the overall symptom network. When depressive and anxiety symptoms were included, the networks identified several cross-disorder connections, such as anhedonia and feeling tense, which highlight potential pathways that describe the comorbidity of BPD with anxiety and depressive syndromes. Overall, cognitive symptoms and dissociation were identified as the most influential symptoms across the networks. This study indicates that BPD, depression, and anxiety symptoms may mutually reinforce one another concurrently and over time. Cognitive symptoms exert the highest influence on the cross-disorder networks, such that they influence BPD, depressive, and anxiety symptoms. Our results support the need of targeting cognitions in the treatment of comorbid BPD.
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